


Constant Ticking

by PhantomGrimalkin



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Help I can't stop writing avengers soulmate stuff, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Timers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-30
Updated: 2015-01-30
Packaged: 2018-03-09 15:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3255293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomGrimalkin/pseuds/PhantomGrimalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ticking was as comforting as the heartbeat, only steadier. Nothing would make it speed up, nothing would make it slow down, the counter would tick relentlessly on until you were brought to the one you were meant to be with.</p><p>How Bruce Banner found his soulmate and immediately regretted it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Constant Ticking

Days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds. 5 numbers, endlessly decreasing, stamped directly over the heart. Everyone was born with this countdown. The one solid proof of fate, as every person was inevitably drawn step by step toward their soul mate.

Some had an incredibly short countdown, indicating childhood puppy love that would bloom into life-long happiness. Some had an unbearably long countdown. Occasionally, it would tragically freeze- indicating the soul mate had died.

Bruce Banner had spent much of his life just staring at that counter. Sometimes, the constantly decreasing numbers were almost hypnotic, helping him get lost in his thoughts. Sometimes he would do equations with the numbers to keep calm. Sometimes he wondered about what his soul mate was like. On bad nights, while his mother held him, he would stare at the frozen numbers on her chest and wonder what would have happened if his parents' soul mates hadn't died.

After the gamma bomb, the numbers became twisted. There were times that he allowed himself to feel hope, that their constant march towards zero meant that he still had a chance for happiness. Then, when he got low, they felt cruel. There was nothing he could do to stop it, to avoid his soul mate, to keep this person safe from him, he couldn't even die. Better to let his soul mate mourn him than know him.

No matter how he felt about it, still the numbers ticked ever downward. When he caught sight of his chest in the mirror and saw the days had gotten below 365, he felt his blood run cold and his heart leap for joy all at the same time. That year was the easiest since the accident. There were no incidents. Avoiding the army was less strenuous.

When he got to Calcutta, the timer was getting dangerously low. After the numbers had counted down to single digits, Bruce started wondering if perhaps he would meet his soul mate here. For some reason, he had just assumed his soul mate would also be American, with all his traveling was it so impossible that perhaps he was just meant to stay here? The days timer hit '1' and it seemed like that was the most likely.

And then the little girl escaped out the window. And then a beautiful woman in an evening gown that concealed weapons stepped into his life. He couldn't have refused her offer if he wanted to. They were on their way back to the US as his days timer hit '0'.

As they got on the Helicarrier, his nerves were at their peak. He was going to meet his soul mate among these government agents? There was no way for that to end well. There were so many people, any of them could be the one. There was someone else on the boat whose timer was so close to zero, who was nervously awaiting their soul mate, who would be left with _him_.

Then he was thrown alone in the lab. He managed to come up with an excuse to glance down his shirt without obviously looking at the timer and glanced at the clock. Half an hour. People passed by the window to the lab, he glanced at them but they rarely spared him a glance. 15 minutes.

He somehow managed to focus on the data and calculations, looking up when he noticed movement through the window again. Guards were escorting the prisoner. Loki. Because apparently highly advanced aliens named their kids based on human mythology. Their eyes met, Loki smirked and Bruce just stared.

Once the procession had passed, the room fell into stillness. A deep stillness that Bruce did not realize was possible. With a start, he realized that the timer had stopped. The constant ticking that he had never even realized was constantly present. He glanced at the clock, sure enough the time had just passed.

Well then.

**Author's Note:**

> I apparently really love the "Bruce finding out Loki's his soulmate during the Chitauri Invasion" concept. Here was the first go of it, I decided that the other version worked a little better as a proper story but wanted to share this anyways. If you want to see the relationship continue, check out [this fic that I intend to actually build upon](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3255272/chapters/7096469).


End file.
